10 things you need to know today

A
woman makes bubbles in the main shopping street in Frankfurt,
Germany.Reuters/Michael
Probst

Here is what you need to know.

The September FOMC minutes are coming. Investors
will have the opportunity to learn more about the three dissents
that occurred at the September meeting as the latest Federal Open
Market Committee minutes are scheduled to be released at 2 p.m.
ET. The minutes could set the stage for an interest-rate hike
before the end of the year. Fed fund futures data compiled by
Bloomberg shows a 17.1% chance of a rate hike at the November
meeting and a 67.6% chance of a rate hike before the end of the
year.

The British pound is surging. Sterling is clawing
back some of the losses from the past week, trading up 1.2% at
1.2267 versus the dollar. According to The Wall Street Journal,
the pound is at its weakest level ever against a basket of
trade-weighted currencies.

Thailand's currency is tumbling. The baht is weaker
by 0.7% at 35.714 per dollar on Wednesday; it has lost 2.4% since
Friday's close amid the declining health of King Bhumibol
Adulyadej.

Steel demand will improve in 2017. The World Steel
Association says stronger-than-expected demand from China and
emerging markets will boost global demand by 0.5% in 2017.

Samsung slashed its profit forecast. The electronics
giant trimmed its third-quarter operating profit guidance to 5.2
trillion won ($4.66 billion) from 7.8 trillion won as a result of
its permanently stopping the production of its Galaxy Note 7
smartphone.

Deutsche Bank raised more cash. On Tuesday, the bank
raised $1.5 billion through the sale of five-year notes. That
comes after Friday's offering that raised $3 billion.